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Markowitz Wants Cost of Atlantic Yards Arena Pared

By Charles V. Bagli January 13, 2009 3:33 pmJanuary 13, 2009 3:33 pm

Updated, 5:16 p.m. | The indefatigable Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, weighed in on Forest City Ratner’s proposed $1 billion basketball arena near downtown Brooklyn on Tuesday, calling on the developer and state officials to review the design with an eye toward paring costs so that the long delayed project is more financially viable.

In light of the economic downturn, he said Forest City should conceive of a “sports and entertainment venue that is more economically feasible but provides the modern amenities our residents and visitors to Brooklyn demand and deserve.”

Funny, but that is pretty much what Forest City Ratner acknowledged it was doing last week. The arena, designed by the architect Frank Gehry, is the centerpiece of a $4 billion development that includes thousands of apartments. The developer said it was meeting with architects and engineers to find ways to cut the cost of the arena, which could be difficult to finance during the recession.

Mr. Markowitz, who takes credit for persuading Forest City to buy the Nets basketball team and move it to Brooklyn from New Jersey, appears to be providing his political blessing after the fact. He suggested that the developer could incorporate some design and construction changes that would lower the bottom line, while celebrating Brooklyn architecture.

Opponents of the project, who view it as an oversize intrusion, regarded the Forest City announcement as a death knell. Daniel Goldstein, a spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, said he found Mr. Markowitz’s statement “bewildering.”

“We’re in the midst of the most severe recession since the Great Depression and he’s discussing what a publicly subsidized arena should look like?” Mr. Goldstein said. “It is indefensible to subsidize a luxury housing project and an arena when so many other vital city services are being cut or going begging. It is long past time to start over with the process of developing the railyards in a feasible manner where we can actually achieve job creation and truly affordable housing in a timely fashion.”

(Mr. Markowitz said in a statement, by way of reply, “I can’t think of a more critical moment than now to create the jobs, affordable housing, tourism and enthusiasm that the arena will bring to Downtown Brooklyn and New York City.”)

There is no question that Forest City is in full cost-cutting mode. All work on the 22-acre site has stopped. Forest City has also talked to officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the land where the arena would be built, about paying $100 million for the property over time, rather than making a single up-front payment. The developer has also talked about building a less expensive railyard as a replacement, according to a state official who is involved with the project.

Joe DePlasco, a spokesman for Forest City Ratner, said in a statement responding to Mr. Markowitz’s comments, “We look forward to discussing the Borough President’s proposal with him and continuing to work with him and others to bring this project to fruition.”

Remember, Forest City Ratner claimed that its bid for the MTA’s Vanderbilt Yard was enhanced by the value of the replacement railyard it was to build, saying its bid of $100 million cash (initially $50 million, before the MTA decided to negotiate exclusively with them, rather than deal with rival bidder Extell, which bid $150 million cash but didn’t have FCR’s political backing) plus enhancements was worth $445 million.
See: //tinyurl.com/a3pmqz

This claim was belied by the fact the MTA’s own appraiser calculated the value of the railyard site at $214.5 million *including* the value of a new railyard. See://tinyurl.com/9rpk3k

And now the developer wants to build a less expensive railyard. Shouldn’t that original bid be reexamined?

Marty’s claim for downsizing Ratner’s project is more of a joke. Those who have actually followed it know that it was mostly minimal or he never actually meant it. Even if there is a call for downsizing, Ratner will be allowed to build it full scale with the state behind him to override all zonning laws as they did in the first place. Also, most know that Marty has been behind Ratner since he launched this project and couldn’t care less about the scale of the project.

This should be done sooner or later on a scale that reflects
the boom that has been taking place in Brooklyn these past years, which many of us expect to continue.
The biggest mystery though is with the Hockey Islanders
floundering in Uniondale, both on an attendance and playing level, why is there no visionary around that is willing to bring them to Brooklyn to join the Nets?
With about a half a million emigries from the former
U.S.S.R ( most of them Hockey crazed Russians and
Ukrainians) now making Brooklyn their homeland, this is
a ready market, and hey, being on the Island too, the franchise wouldn’t even have to cross a significant body of water to get here!

Vic, sorry to burst your bubble, but the Nets want a basketball-only arena to themselves. Otherwise they would have gone in full fledged with the Devils instead of just the 3 exhibition games in Newark they’re (finally) talking about now.

And Marty has long lost all credibility on anything related to Atlantic Yards. Give it up, Marty. The Nets are NOT the Dodgers. To most people in Brooklyn, the Nets are just Brand X that happened to be for sale when Ratner came along.

Build that thing already! Ratner and Markowitz have been planning Atlantic Yards since 2003 and they still don’t have full financial backing. What have they been doing all this time?

Hopefully cut backs don’t hamper the architectural design. After Ratner built that eyesore Atlantic mall he owes Brooklyn an architectural gem. Downtown Brooklyn has been booming lately and it deserves the best Gehry has to offer.

Mr. Markowitz is out of touch with reality.
The demand for commercial and residential real estate is going down the drain, the cost of funding is sky high and he’s still proposing this ego-driven oversize monster financed by taxpayer money at the time when other much needed services are suffering severe budget cuts.

Well, all I can tell you is I have known Bruce Ratner my entire life, He is my godfather, he was my dad’s best man and my dad gave the key note speech at his 50th birthday. Bruce puts on a nice show, but he is a pedophile who badly abused me and when I tried to come out and get him to tell the truth he sent Latin Kings who work for and are related to a guy, Loise Ocasio who works for him to make death threats to me on myself and loved ones until I got upset and he came after me for that. My father who was his Harvard roommate and best friend for years calls him a criminal and my mother who has never said a bad word about anyone says he is dead to her. Currenlty Bruce Ratner and his daughter are tapping computers and breaking into homes. Rebbie Ratner and her boyfriend of many years, JOSEPH MEISSNER also a criminal: //landrumcreations.smugmug.com/ACTORS-Credited/ACTORS-MEN-30/1573434_mwciL/1/453131674_Lko22/Medium have broken into my home on a number of occasions but they have USDOJ protection so I can get no answers. Bruce will answer no questions. He is a hustler who uses death threats and the USDOJ to do his dirty work

Beware of Bruce Ratner. He touches children in a sexual way, and if I were you I would steer clear of he and his daughter. He is currently shaking me down using his Nephew Mathew Ratner of the USDOJ and they are guilty of widespead racketeering as well as making death threats over the Whitehouse website as seen here: //myfamilyonenoexceptions.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post.html

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